Government sorts the railway by siren colour. What changes at every station near Bucha

The siren on the platform in Bucha, Irpin or Sviatoshyn now comes in two colours, and the colour decides whether your train leaves. The government has approved rules for how the railway and its stations operate depending on the level of air threat. They are the same for everyone: for the suburban electric train to Kyiv, for the regional train to Korosten, and for an overnight long-distance service or an Intercity from Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi.

Here is what it means at every station in the district and at the Kyiv terminals, and what to do when the alert catches you with a ticket already in hand.

What the government decided

Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi announced the decision on the evening of 17 September in a video address on Telegram; the Government portal published the text the same evening. Under a yellow threat level trains run to schedule and boarding and alighting continue. Under a red level boarding and departures are suspended and people go to shelters.

It is important to note that, depending on the situation on the ground, Ukrzaliznytsia will be able to promptly restrict traffic and disperse rolling stock and passengers to avoid crowding.

Serhii KoretskyiPrime Minister of Ukraine

The levels themselves were defined by Resolution No. 1092 of 4 September: yellow means a drone threat, red means a missile, missile-and-drone or massive drone threat. The signal is differentiated on the basis of Air Force of Ukraine information through the national warning system. The same resolution instructed the Ministry for Development, together with Ukrzaliznytsia, to submit a separate act on the railway within three days, and that is the act the government has now approved.

The text of the act itself has not yet been published on the Government portal, so below we rely on the Prime Minister's statement and on those provisions of the resolution that have already become known. Ukrzaliznytsia, together with regional administrations and communities, must widen access to shelters at stations; the railway will receive threat-level information automatically; the Interior Ministry and the National Police will step up security at stations and escort evacuations.

Regions have been told to align city transport timetables with train traffic, especially at night, and to speed up the installation of mobile shelters.

Yellow and red: what happens to the train and what to do

Level	What happens to the train	What the passenger does
Yellow (drone threat)	Trains run to schedule, arrivals and departures continue, boarding and alighting at stations and platforms are allowed	Staying at the station or on the platform is at your own discretion, provided you know the threat level and where the nearest shelter is; listen to announcements and watch the Ukrzaliznytsia app
Red (missile, missile-and-drone or massive drone threat)	Boarding and departures are suspended; arrivals, departures and the passage of trains follow the procedure set by Ukrzaliznytsia, which may restrict or temporarily halt traffic and disperse trains and people	Go to the nearest shelter together with station staff; on a platform without a shelter, move away from the tracks and rolling stock; do not wait for the train on the platform

What this means for passengers of the Bucha district

Photo: Daryna Slipenko / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

The rules make no distinction between suburban, regional and long-distance trains: they apply to stations and passenger platforms as such. So they work on the Korosten line, at Bucha, Irpin, Vorzel, Nemishaieve, Klavdiievo and Borodianka, and on the Fastiv line used by residents of Vyshneve and neighbouring Boiarka. They apply equally at Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi, Kyiv-Volynskyi, Sviatoshyn and Darnytsia, from which our residents leave on long-distance trains.

For Bucha and Vorzel this also covers the regional Kyiv — Korosten trains that have stopped at these stations since August, and the suburban electric trains whose fares went up on 15 September.

Alert colours in our district are no longer theory. The Kyiv Regional Military Administration has been announcing levels by district since 8 September: the first "yellow" for the Bucha district sounded that morning at 06:40, the first "red: missile threat" late in the evening of 9 September. On 17 September alone a yellow level was declared for the district several times, during the day and at around ten in the evening.

We reported how the capital switched to colours first and how the malls of Bucha and Irpin operate under them.

The sharpest question is shelters at the stations themselves. The official shelter list of Irpin City Council does not include the station, and Bucha City Council has not reported a shelter at Bucha station. The government resolution names no specific addresses; instead it requires Ukrzaliznytsia, together with regional administrations and communities, to widen access to shelters. As early as 8 September the region decided to install mobile shelters at Ukrzaliznytsia stations together with communities. Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional administration, explained it this way:

We can already see that the attacks are constant, and we must shorten the distance between people and points of safety. All the more so now that Ukrzaliznytsia's passenger locations are being attacked.

Tymur TkachenkoHead of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration

Photo: Visem / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

One more point matters for those coming home on a late train. The curfew in the Kyiv region has run from 01:00 to 05:00 since 10 September and is synchronised with the capital's precisely for those who work in Kyiv. The government has instructed regional administrations and the Kyiv city administration to align city transport with train timetables, including at night, and to let passengers pass freely to and from stations during curfew on the strength of a ticket.

What a passenger from Bucha or Irpin should do

• Before leaving home check the alert level in the Kyiv Regional Military Administration or regional police channel: under yellow, go; under red, wait at home until boarding resumes.
• On a platform without a shelter Ukrzaliznytsia advises moving at least 200 metres away from the tracks and not waiting for a delayed train on the platform; we covered this rule in detail.
• On a train already moving, evacuation is ordered only when a specific train is under direct threat, not because of an alert in the region: follow the conductor and do not get off on your own.
• At a large terminal such as Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi or Darnytsia, go to the shelter with the staff under a red level; if boarding for your train continues, railway staff will announce it separately.
• Check delays in the Ukrzaliznytsia app: during an alert push notifications are sent, while ticket-office and information staff are also in the shelter.
• At night keep your ticket handy: under the resolution it is to serve as your pass to and from the station during curfew.

What happened until now

Before the resolution the railway followed its own rules, and in essence they match the new ones: go to the shelter and listen to announcements. The company put its principle of movement this way: "we keep moving wherever the security situation allows". Back in spring the railway issued a guide to evacuation rules and began deploying more than 800 modular shelters, first of all where there are no permanent ones.

The company showed the scale of the threat in early August: in five days russia attacked the railway 41 times, and passengers had to be evacuated from trains 350 times. On the eve of the government's decision train No. 122 Kyiv — Mykolaiv came under attack, and before dawn on 17 September a drone damaged the station building in Berestyn, where passengers and staff were in the shelter, as well as the Mykilska Slobidka stop of the Kyiv ring electric train.

The resolution turns this division into a government decision, and Ukrzaliznytsia must now approve its own procedure for staff and recommendations for passengers and inform people about the threat level via loudspeakers, boards, its website and app. The railway has not yet published new instructions of its own.

As a reminder, in early September Ukraine introduced yellow and red levels of air-raid alert. Back then the change was about siren signals; now the colour also decides the train timetable.

Nota bene

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